Rick Hightower

The past three articles in this series have highlighted the strengths of scripting languages. They're interactive and dynamic, and allow you to experiment, debug and prototype solutions quickly. However, the most common response when I speak to die-hard Java fanatics is, "Yeah, but I'll have to learn another language and I already know Java" (I consider myself a die-hard Java fanatic to a degree). To be honest, this is a barrier that most won't cross. But what if you could have the best of both worlds? What if you could have your cake and eat it too? Well, in a sense you can. You can use a Java-like scripting language. Now when I say that, most of you were probably thinking JavaScript. (Admit it.) But I'm not talking about JavaScript. Java and JavaScript have a similar syntax, both deriving from C/C++. However, the way that JavaScript defines methods, event handler... (more)

NetRexx Programming for the JVM

What This Series Is About This article is Part 3 of an interactive series that discusses the many languages that compile and/or run on the Java platform. Java Developer's Journal invites you to vote for your favorite non-Java programming language in the JDJ forum. Your vote will decide which languages will be covered by the series, and in what order. A lot of languages work in the JVM, but this series will cover only the most popular, as determined by your votes. To vote: Go to the top of the JDJ Web page and click the forum graphic. Click the "Enter the JDJ Developer's Forum" li... (more)

Interview...with Mike Cowlishaw

Interview...with Mike Cowlishaw Creator of NetRexx R. Hightower: Have you considered an open- source license? M. Cowlishaw: Until recently the licensing issues seemed something of a minefield with so many different ideas on what open source should be. Also, my translator/compiler is very much a research scaffolding (for example, it has hooks, which look like dead code, for multiple input syntaxes). At the moment I'm (finally) implementing the interpreter pathways, which is very much a work in progress; this sort of thing is much easier to do when only one person is working on the ... (more)

Python Programming in the JVM

What This Series Is About This article is Part 2 of a series that discusses the many languages that compile and/or run on the Java platform. This is an interactive series. Java Developer's Journal invites you to vote for your favorite non-Java programming language in the JDJ Forum. Your vote will decide which languages will be covered by the series, and in what order. The last time I checked, JPython and NetRexx were neck and neck. NetRexx, though not mentioned previously, will be covered in the next article. There are some great languages that I didn't mention last month, but as ... (more)

Extending Your Applications with Bean Scripting Framework

Part 4 of a series discussing the many languages that compile and/or run on the Java platform Do you remember the operating system religious wars? Mac OS versus Windows, Windows NT versus UNIX, OS/2 versus Windows NT. Or how about the text editor wars ­ VI versus Emacs? It may seem silly for programmers to become involved so passionately with the technology they work with, but if you spend more time with your VI text editor than with your family, I guess you do get kind of attached. I'm certain, for example, that we all have our favorite programming language.... Recently, for e... (more)